Right-angle connectors are well-known. A right-angle connector is a connector having a mating interface for mating with another connector and a mounting interface for mounting on a printed circuit board. The mating and mounting interfaces each define a plane, and the two planes are perpendicular (i.e., at a right angle) to each other. Thus, a right-angle connector can be used to electrically connect two boards perpendicularly to one another.
In a right-angle connector, one contact of a differential signal contact pair may be longer than the other contact of the pair. The difference in length in the contacts of the pair may create a different signal propagation time in one contact with respect to the other contact. It may be desirable to minimize this skew between contacts that form a differential signal pair in a right-angle connector.
Electrical connectors may be used in orthogonal applications. In an orthogonal application, each of two connectors is mounted to a respective, opposite side of a so-called “midplane.” The connectors are electrically coupled to one another through the midplane. A pattern of electrically conductive holes may be formed through the midplane. The terminal mounting ends of the contacts may be received into the holes. To reduce the complexity of the midplane, it is often desirable that the terminal mounting ends of the contacts from a first of the connectors be received into the same holes as the terminal mounting ends of the contacts from the other connector.
Additional background may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,766,023, 5,161,987, and 4,762,500, and in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/388,549, filed Mar. 24, 2006, entitled “Orthogonal Backplane Connector,” the contents of each of which are incorporated by reference in their entireties.